Speaking of that financial interest, Quebecor released quarterly report this week, and “Quebecor réduit sa perte” was the headline. The improvement was mostly because of Videotron, which increased its number of customers and managed to squeeze 10% more out of each one on average. Newspaper revenues dropped by 5.5%, though the report covers the period before the lockout at the Journal started.

Crank calls? Really?

La Presse reports that managers at the Journal got calls last week from people answering classified ads on Craigslist and Kijiji. Apparently their phone numbers were placed on fake ads put on the sites and managers got calls late at night. Those of you wondering when the union’s pressure tactics would descend into the cliché and juvenile, there you go.

Meanwhile

The STIJM issues another series of arguments on its website, where it (again) takes on the argument that the union is stifling the development of a Journal website by saying it’s pushing for one, but one that’s independent of other Quebecor Media outlets. It also points out that the Journal has only 123 editorial employees, which it says is low compared to other newspapers of a similar size (it counts the New York Times as “similar”).

Rue Frontenac digs up another Richard Martineau column from Voir which blasts the Journal for its media convergence.